Headed for Conquest

May 21, 2013 at 11:24 am

I hear that everything’s up to date in Kansas City, so I’ll be headed that way tomorrow to see for myself.

ConQuest beckons; KC’s annual regional convention, one of the best. Should be a good time. Patrick Rothfuss is GOH, John Picacio will be there, along with Brad Denton, Caroline Spector, and all of my old KC friends and partners in crime. I’ll be doing a reading, doing a panel, eating too much barbeque, drinking too much bheer.

And even before the con, we’ll have the road trip. I will be hitting the road with my Aussie friends, and driving right through the heart of Tornado Alley, which should be an… ah… adventure. If you’re in Oklahoma or Kansas and think you see me passing by, you may be right. The Big Well beckons… along with Dorothy’s House, Pancake Boulevard, the Cosmodrome, and the Elevator of Terror (you can’t make this stuff up).

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Tags: conventions, travels

Coming to Texas

March 12, 2013 at 11:20 am

I have a lot of readers in Texas, it would seem. Every time I make a book tour or attend a convention or blog about my travels to Europe or Australia or wherever, I get a rush of emails asking, “When are you coming to Texas?”

I can finally give the answer you Texans want to hear: I am coming to Texas NEXT WEEK.

I will be flying in on Thursday, March 21, to College Station, home of Texas A&M University, where my papers and manuscripts and such are all on deposit in Special Collections at Cushing Memorial Library. (A&M has one of the country’s great SF and fantasy collections, a treasure trove for scholars of the genre). I’ll be doing a reading, a signing, and speaking at a fundraising dinner, and many of my manuscripts and papers and collectibles will be on display.

DTS teaser

More information here: http://deeperthanswords.library.tamu.edu/

The library events, scheduled for March 21 and March 22, are all sold out, alas.

However, immediately after “Deeper Than Swords” comes AGGIECON, A&M’s storied sf/fantasy convention. I am staying for that one as well, so if you miss me on Thursday and Friday, you can still catch me on Saturday and Sunday.

You can check out the Aggiecon details at http://cephvar.tamu.edu/aggiecon .

Sign up there or at the door. Besides me, Aggiecon 44 (I told you, this is an old and storied convention) will also feature Ernest Cline of READY PLAYER ONE fame, and a number of other great guests. Ty Franck (also known as the back half of James S.A. Corey) will be coming with me, Howard Waldrop says he’ll be coming down from Austin, and some of my other Wild Cards writers may turn up too.

Last time I attended an Aggiecon it was… oh, I don’t know, 1980 or thereabouts… but I have fond memories of past visits to A&M, most of them involving great Texas barbeque, too much bheer, pretty college girls, and Aggies in uniforms politely but firmly asking me to remove my hat. ’twill be interesting to see if any of that still applies. Somewhere in A&M’s student union may be my lost youth… I know I had it the last time I visited…

And for those of you who can’t make it to College Station… have no fear, I will be coming back to Texas again this year, for worldcon in San Antonio over Labor Day. It’s too late to nominate for the Hugos now, but there’s still plenty of time to sign up for LoneStarCon 3, and see them awarded.

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Tags: conventions, travels

Once More, At Home

September 4, 2012 at 5:34 pm

Home from Chicago and Chicon 7.

A terrific worldcon, one of the best in years. Everything a worldcon should be.

More later, when I catch my breath and answer some of my emails.

((LATER))

For those who could not be with us at Chicon, YouTube has my moment in the sun, the presentation of the award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.

<lj-embed id=”328″/>

FWIW, the voting stats released after the awards ceremony reveal that GAME OF THRONES would have placed two episodes (“Baelor” and “The Pointy End”) on the ballot in Short Form, if the concom had not decided to place us in Long Form instead. A third episode would just have missed the cut.

Thanks for everyone who nominated us in either category… thanks to everyone who nominated, period. That really is the heart of the Hugo process.

((STILL LATER))

And for those who missed my GAME OF THRONES panel, Mo Ryan has chronicled it with a blog and podcast. Check it out here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/04/game-of-thrones-season-3-characters_n_1854918.html

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Tags: conventions, worldcon

Bring Me the Head of Howard Phillips Lovecraft

August 14, 2012 at 1:26 pm

Actually, TWO heads would be even better.

It occurs to me that I have been so busy lately that I have not yet gotten around to announcing that (1) A DANCE WITH DRAGONS has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award in the “Best Novel” category, and (2) the World Fantasy Award jury has also selected me as one of the winners of their Lifetime Achievement Award this year.

images

The World Fantasy Award is one of the more complicated honors in our field. Here’s how it works. A five-person jury is selected. The members of the previous World Fantasy Con and the upcoming World Fantasy Con receive a nominating ballot, and nominate two finalists in each award category. The jury adds three additional nominees. Then the jury selects the winner from among the five finalists.

This year’s finalists for Best Novel are:

!¢ THOSE ACROSS THE RIVER, Christopher Buehlman (Ace)
!¢ 11/22/63, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton as 11.22.63)
!¢ A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, George R.R. Martin (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK)
!¢ OSAMA, Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)
!¢ AMONG OTHERS, Jo Walton (Tor)

A very distinguished list. My congratulations to all the other finalists.

The rest of the ballot can be found here:

http://www.wfc2012.org/pr-wfawards01.html

The Lifetime Achievement Award is a different deal. That one is announced ahead of time. I was rather startled to learn that the jury had announced ME. After all, my lifetime is not nearly over, and I have lots more achieving ahead of me, I hope… (unless the World Fantasy Award knows something that I do not). I am such a young lad, and devilishly handsome as well.

However, it is a HUGE honor, and I am very thrilled to receive it… especially as the jury also named Alan Garner as the other Lifetime Achievement receipient. If you don’t know Garner’s work, well… you should, damn you. He’s the author of THE OWL SERVICE and THE WEIRDSTONES OF BRISINGAMEN and ELIDOR and all sorts of other great stuff, and was writing terrific fantasies long before fantasy was either popular or fashionable. It’s great to see Garner get some long overdue recognition for his contributions to our genre. Now I’d love to see someone put all his books back into print again.

Past receipients of the Life Achievement award include Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. Le Guin, Theodore Sturgeon, Richard Matheson, Jack Vance, Jack Williamson, Stephen King, Fritz Leiber, Gene Wolfe, and many of my other heroes and role models, so I am going to be in very good company indeed with this one.

The awards will be presented at this year’s World Fantasy Convention in Toronto over Halloween weekend. Alas, I do not think I will be able to attend. My schedule is already pretty full for the rest of 2012, and this one came on me unexpectedly. (Also, I just appeared in Toronto early in the year). But I am sure it will be a great con.

(I do have one of Howard’s heads already, for my werewolf novella “The Skin Trade” from way back when. He proudly wears a Jets cap).

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Tags: awards, conventions, honors

Coming to Chicago

August 13, 2012 at 11:01 pm

Leaving for Chicon TOMORROW, so I figured I’d bump this one back up to the top.

Should be a great con! See you there, boys and girls.
===================================================================

Worldcon is coming up soon: Chicon 7, to be held in Chicago over Labor Day Weekend (worldcon’s traditional weekend, where it AND IT ALONE belongs). I’ll be there. Hell, I’ve only missed one worldcon in the last thirty years. Of course I will be there.

Just finished nailing down the details of my programming at the con.

Here’s where you will find me:

THURSDAY August 30
3:00 – 4:30 pm autographing, dealer’s room

FRIDAY August 31
1:30 – 3:00 pm autographing, dealer’s room
4:30 – 6:00 pm WILD CARDS panel, Crystal A

SATURDAY September 1
12:00 – 1:30pm GAME OF THRONES discussion w/ Mo Ryan of THE HUFFINGTON POST,
Columbus EF
3:00 – 4:30pm SECRET HISTORY OF SCIENCE FICTION panel w/ Resnick, Dozois, Silverberg,
Crystal B

SUNDAY September 2
1:30 – 3:00pm reading from THE WINDS OF WINTER, Columbus EF
8:00 pm HUGO AWARDS, Hyatt Regency Grand Ballroom

MONDAY September 3
1:30 – 3:00pm autographing, dealer’s room

Of course, I will also be found partying in the evenings. Look for the Brotherhood Without Banners bash. It will be the best party at the con, it always is. If I’m not there, I likely will be soon. I will also be at the Hugo Loser’s Party and Keith’s chili party, but you probably can’t get into those… the BWB parties are open. And if Kansas City throws a bid party (I expect they will), I will be there too.

Cons, as I have said many a time, are a MUCH better place to meet and hang with your favorite author (or me, if your favorite isn’t there) than any booksigning.

Do please note, however: I have scheduled myself for three ninety-minutes autograph sessions, so I will be defacing books for four and a half hours at this worldcon. If you want your book signed, come to one of those. PLEASE do not ask me to sign outside of those scheduled events.

If you come across me walking through the hall, visiting the art show, browsing in the dealer’s room, attending a program item, leaving my panel or rushing to the next one, waiting for a cab, eating dinner, eating lunch, eating breakfast… by all means say hi, but don’t ask me to sign anything. That’s what those autograph sessions are for.

And at parties, or in the bar, hey, by all means, come up, say hi, introduce yourself, start a conversation, offer to buy me a drink (I may or may not accept), flirt with me (I may or may not respond)… but DON’T ask me to sign stuff, okay? And while I certainly don’t mind talking about my books or the TV show, remember, I have done a thousand interviews on these subjects, and asking me about my favorite character or telling me who YOUR favorite character is will likely just send me slouching off to find someone who wants to talk about Jack Vance, sing old TV theme songs, or argue whether Sanchez or Tebow should QB the Jets.

’nuff said.

See you in Chicago, I hope.

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Tags: conventions, signings, worldcon

Safe in Spain

July 16, 2012 at 9:55 pm

San Diego Comicon was great fun… but exhausting beyond belief. Somehow I survived, however. Spent all day Sunday on airplanes crossing the Atlantic, and today finds me, jetlagged and weary, in Madrid. I arrived in the morning and slept all day. Just ate some dinner, and am about to go to bed again. By tomorrow morning I should be well-rested for my trip to Aviles.

See you all at CELSIUS!!!

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Tags: conventions, spain, travel

Leaving on a Jet Plane…

July 11, 2012 at 10:36 am

… in a few hours. This time my destination is San Diego Comicon.

(I was the first registrant at the very first comicon, did I mention? Drew about thirty people to a seedy hotel in Greenwich Village. But I did get to meet Steve Ditko and Fabulous Flo Steinberg. Comicons have grown since).

I expect I will see some of you at the HBO panel. I’m the lucky one, I don’t have to stand in line for hours to get in.

From San Diego, I fly direct to Spain. Look for me in Aviles, Madrid, and Barcelona.

I will be scarce around here until I get back home at month’s end, but I leave the house, the office, and the blog in the hands of my trio of able assistants, Terrible Ty, Rambunctious Raya, and Perky Pat. You may hear from them from time to time while I’m gone.

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Tags: conventions, spain, television, travel

Massively Multiplayer Tease

July 11, 2012 at 1:12 am

Bigpoint has unveiled a short teaser for their forthcoming GAME OF THRONES mmorpg. I thought the gamers out there might enjoy a look

<lj-embed id=”320″/>

If the scenery and music seems familiar, that’s because this game is being produced under a license from, and with the cooperation of, HBO and is based on the TV show, whereas the previous Cyanide videogames were based on the books.

Moreover, I’m informed that BigPoint will be previewing the game this weekend at the San Diego Comicon. To have a look, visit the Dark Horse booth. I know I will… I want to see what they’re doing just as much as you do!!

Here’s the BigPoint press release:

July 2, 2012 !“ San Francisco !“ Bigpoint !“ a global leader in online video games !“ today revealed the official name of its upcoming free-to-play (F2P) fantasy massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) as Game of Thrones Seven Kingdoms. Bigpoint has partnered with HBOÂ® to develop the game inspired by the network’s critically acclaimed television show, Game of ThronesÂ®, adapted from the bestselling fantasy book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, written by George R.R. Martin. Game of Thrones Seven Kingdoms will be set within the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, giving players the chance to experience epic moments from the television series. At the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con, July 12-15, Bigpoint will release a new exclusive video trailer for Game of Thrones Seven Kingdoms.

!œSelecting a game’s title can be quite an arduous process, especially in the free-to-play space where games must be easily discoverable by players around the world,! said Max Pfaff, Producer, Bigpoint. !œBy selecting Game of Thrones Seven Kingdoms we’re confident that we’ve chosen an identifiable name that will resonate with the global community of diehard Thrones fans.!

In context of the lore, the Seven Kingdoms were originally independent countries which rose up over thousands of years until the Targaryens ruled over them as one nation of Westeros. Game of Thrones Seven Kingdoms begins after the deaths of King Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark. The Starks of the north declare war on the south and Baratheon’s two brothers both make claims to the throne. Players are challenged to form alliances through Player vs. Player (PvP), Siege combat and politics to control Westeros.

Fans attending San Diego Comic-Con (July 12-15) will also have the opportunity to get a first look at the exclusive new Game of Thrones Seven Kingdoms trailer by Bigpoint which can be viewed at booth 2615 (Dark Horse). The teaser captures the essence of gameplay and visual fidelity that players will get to experience when the game is launched.

Bigpoint is collaborating with Norwegian development studio, Artplant, on the development of the forthcoming Unity-based project. Bigpoint and Artplant have previously partnered on the production of Battlestar Galactica Online, a breakthrough F2P space combat MMO that recently celebrated its first birthday and 10 million registered pilot milestone.

Game of Thrones Seven Kingdoms beta testing is slated to begin later this year. Fans are encouraged to visit: http://www.GameofThronesMMO.com/ for more information and to follow the latest Twitter updates @GOTMMO.

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Tags: conventions, game of thrones, hbo, videogame

Back from Montana

May 30, 2012 at 11:09 am

Back home again from Missoula, Montana, where I spent the weekend as GOH at Miscon 26.

’twas my first trip to Montana, and I can’t say I really saw much of it, but Missoula was a pleasant little city, and the con itself was great. They drew 1300 people, I’m told, a record for Miscon, and I think all of them had a great time. I know I did. Miscon fen party like we did in the old days, and the hotel — Ruby’s, a small indy with local ownership — was really great. None of the nonsense with noise complaints and shutting down parties and elevators that has plagued so many cons of late. In fact, some of the hotel management partied with us.

So a tip of the hat to Justin, Cthulhu Bob, Clay, and the rest of the Miscon Miscreants, and to Tim, Dustan, and Vicky from Ruby’s. You were great.

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Tags: conventions, travel

Off Again

March 26, 2012 at 11:24 pm

Seems as though I just got back from Toronto, and tomorrow I am off again — this time for England and Portugal.

The UK comes first. Signings in Bath and London (details on my website), a visit to the London Book Fair, and best of all, EASTERCON at Heathrow. I hope I will see some of you there, and we can hoist a pink or three.

And from there it’s on to Portugal, and appearances in Lisbon and Porto. Not nearly as long as visit as I’d like, but I’m looking forward to it.

I don’t often log on while on the road, so posts here will be few and far between for the next few weeks. Though Ty may drop in from time to time with some announcements.

Back home just in time for the NFL Draft!

I expect that the UK will be a No Tebow Zone. That will be a relief.

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Tags: conventions, travels

Not a Blog

Headed for Conquest

Coming to Texas

Once More, At Home

Bring Me the Head of Howard Phillips Lovecraft

Coming to Chicago

Safe in Spain

Leaving on a Jet Plane…

Massively Multiplayer Tease

Back from Montana

Off Again

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